Gail Perry's Story
For years, Iāve worked with board members who wanted to help with fundraisingābut didnāt know what to do.
They cared deeply about their organizations. They knew their causes needed funds. But they were afraid of asking for money, worried they might have to solicit their friends, and unsure how else they could help.
I saw the same thing on the more than 30 boards where I served. Smart, committed board members wanted to contribute. They simply didnāt know how they could support fundraising without asking for money.
Thatās why I developed my Fired-Up Fundraising Board Workshops. Through engaging exercises and shared experiences, board members discovered that their enthusiasm, connections, and personal stories could go a long way.
They learned that asking is only one small part of fundraisingāand that there are many other ways to help.
The Book
Easy Fundraising & Friendmaking for Board MembersĀ
Easy Fundraising & Friendmaking for Board Members is the book Iāve wanted to write throughout my entire career. In fact, I wrote half of it about 10 years ago. Finally, I had the opportunity to return to it and bring together everything Iāve learned from working with board members and fundraising leaders.
That same vision inspired Friends to Funds.
My hope for this bookāand for Friends to Fundsāis bigger than helping individual board members feel more comfortable with fundraising.
I want to provide the resources, training, and encouragement to create a tidal wave of board members taking action around the world. Board members who proudly share their organizationās story. Who invite others to get involved. And who help raise the friends and funds needed to make the world a better place.
What We Believe
Fundraising can be fun. Itās about connecting with people who care about your mission as much as you do.
Make friends first. Ask later. Relationships come before requests. A gift grows out of the relationship between a donor and an organization.
Every board member has a role. Not every role involves asking. Making an introduction, sharing a story, inviting someone to an event, or calling a donor to say thank you all count.
Donors are people, not checkbooks. We donāt believe in transactional fundraising that focuses only on money. We believe in making friends who want to help change the world.
Board members want to help. They need practical ways to get involved. With the right guidance and greater confidence, every board member can find a role and take action.
Why This Matters
Board members are one of the most underused fundraising resources in the nonprofit sector. They bring relationships, credibility, community connections, enthusiasm, experience, and influence.
Organizations just tend to start in the wrong place: they begin with asking.
Friends to Funds begins with friendmaking instead. Who might want to know about this work? Who could become interested in the mission? Who would enjoy meeting the people involved, or seeing the work firsthand? Who should we thank? Who should we bring closer?
Those questions create a very different kind of conversation in the boardroom, and they give a lot more people a way to participate.
Make Friends First. Ask Later.
From Friends to Funds
The name says what we believe.
Ā
People rarely start out as donors. They start out as people who become interested. They learn something, meet someone, hear a story, attend an event, see the work firsthand. They get curious. They get connected.
Over time, some of those friends become donors. Some become major donors. Some become champions who bring in other people. Some become board members themselves.
That's why we believe fundraising begins long before the ask. Make Friends First. Ask Later.
Meet The Author
Gail Perry,Ā MBA, CFRE
Gail Perry, MBA, CFRE, is an internationally recognized fundraising consultant, keynote speaker, and major gifts and capital campaign strategist. A LinkedIn Top Voice in Philanthropy, she has spent more than 30 years helping nonprofit leaders and boards raise money for causes they care about.
Gail began her fundraising career at Duke University and later led fundraising at UNCās Kenan-Flagler Business School. She went on to found and lead the Gail Perry Group, advising nonprofit organizations across the country for more than two decades.
Gail has trained and facilitated hundreds of boards in the United States and abroad. Her clients have included the CDC Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, San Diego Zoo Global, the Trust for Public Land, and many others. She has published hundreds of articles and delivered keynotes, webinars, and workshops at major fundraising conferences around the world.
Gail is the author of the bestselling Fired-Up Fundraising: Turn Board Passion into Action (Wiley/AFP), called the āgold-standard guide to building successful fundraising boards.ā Her newest book, Easy Fundraising & Friendmaking for Board Members, brings decades of experience directly to board members themselves.
She also collaborated with Andrea Kihlstedt on the fourth edition of Capital Campaigns: Strategies That Work, a leading textbook in the field. Gail has guided more than 40 capital campaigns and helped organizations raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Philanthropy Media has named her one of Americaās Top 20 Fundraising Experts.
Rather than telling board members they need to become solicitors, Gail gives them practical ways to participate based on their strengths, personalities, and relationships. That philosophy is now at the heart of Friends to Funds.
āIāve watched Gail Perry work her magic with nonprofit boards for twenty years.ā
Roger Craver
Author, Editor, The Agitator
āGail Perry is the wise woman of nonprofit boardsāa legend for helping boards get functionally comfortable with fundraising. Sort of a āboard whisperer.āā
Tom Ahern
internationally recognized author and keynote speaker
Free Toolkit
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